TGIF 2/14/20

Time to review the lists again...

Happy Valentine's Day - and for those who are celebrating in some way, large or small, congratulations - you're on the good list!

For those of you who think holidays like this are silly, guess what? You're also on the good list - because here at veritable pastiche, the tent is big enough for different opinions on holidays (especially the ones in December...).

Moving on to the bigger picture, I can't decide what kind of week Snitty Snitty Bill Barr is having. On the one hand, he's continuing to do exactly what president Trump wants him to do, but on the other hand he's complaining that the president making his wishes known are making it "impossible" for him to do his job. Honest, that's what he said.

...to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we're doing our work with integrity.

And of course, the president assures us he's just doing what he's allowed to do, when he interferes and in particular when he attacks judges, which he has started doing with the Roger Stone case, and what he famously did with Judge Gonzalo Curiel earlier on. Here's a compilation of those attacks.

What else is going on this week? Oh - that's right: New Hampshire voters had a good week, with record-setting turnout in the Democratic primary and what's likely a record or near record narrow margin of victory for That Guy from Vermont. And even though I don't understand why, over 150,000 of them showed up to vote for Trump in the meaningless Republican primary. That's desire, I guess.  Other good weeks? Mayor Pete, who earned just as many NH delegates as the "clear front runner," and Amy Klobuchar, who picked up six delegates. Papa Joe left for South Carolina before voting was even done, and Elizabeth Warren? I think only a fool would write her off.

Andrew McCabe, who oh-so-long ago was the Deputy Director of the FBI, got late-breaking good week notification. His lawyers were advised that McCabe won't be charged with anything after being left hanging for nearly two years. I'll let you decide whether this is an effort by AG Barr to demonstrate how independent he is, or if we'll see a review of this decision anytime soon. You know -- after Trump inevitably tweets about it.

In my neck of the woods, NY's Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo went to Albany to try and get the administration to back off on plans to keep New Yorkers from participating in a few travel programs. We were stripped of that right ostensibly because of the Green Light Law which allows undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses and prevents the DMV from sharing info with immigration officials.

Now, there's a little issue of what might look like a quid pro quo here, which came in the form of a tweet from you-know-who.

I'm sure, as you are, there's no question that's a perfect tweet right there, but even if it's neither perfect nor a quid pro quo, our AG Tish James set the record straight.

And finally, I'll end with news that Mike Bolsinger, a relief pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, is suing the Houston Astros for damages and to have their $30M+ in bonuses donated to charities for kids and for retired major leaguers.

Bolsinger, an off-speed pitcher, had one disastrous inning in the 2017 playoffs and was released by the Blue Jays that night - never to pitch in the majors again. His lawyers say the Astros knew every single pitch in the inning, in which he walked three batters, gave up four earned runs, and got one batter out. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles, home of the Dodgers, who eventually lost the World Series to the Astros. I'm putting Bolsinger squarely on the good week list.

TGIF, everyone.